Winnipeg has been making international news recently, with our city and province highlighted as a global tourist destination. These accolades confirm what we have known for a long time: Winnipeg is an excellent city to live, work, and play.
When describing why the world should visit Winnipeg, a multitude of reasons were cited. Lonely Planet, when naming Manitoba a ‘Best in Travel’ destination for 2019, praised our diverse population and noted that “[Winnipeg] has retained its multicultural flavour”. World-traveler website Travel Lemming awarded Winnipeg their #1 emerging destination to visit in North America, pointing out that “Winnipeg is an undiscovered cultural center spilling over with a burgeoning culinary scene, modern museums, and boutique shops galore.” Travelzoo, a global travel media company with over 28 million members, exclaimed that “Winnipeg’s culinary scene has never been better”, and “downtown Winnipeg is being reborn” when including our city on their list of global highlights.
These awards are just some of the recent positive press our city has enjoyed – we have also been recognized by lifestyle magazine Zoomer, and the global room-sharing platform Airbnb. Taken together, this positive media coverage continues to reaffirm Winnipeg’s status as a world-class city. We are not just being compared to other Canadian cities on these lists; we are being mentioned in the same breath as the Baja Peninsula, the Scottish Highlands, and South Korea. It’s excellent company to keep.
Being on multiple lists of global destinations will help drive our international appeal and keep Winnipeg top of mind as a tourist destination, but we need to do more. Capitalizing on this positive press can yield long-term dividends for our city, if we can demonstrate value not just for tourists, but residents and business leaders as well.
The ultimate objective for Economic Development Winnipeg, along with all our partners and stakeholders, is to have our city to be top of mind as a place to live, work, and play. We cannot stop at attracting tourists – we need to attract new talent, businesses, and direct investment to Winnipeg. At the same time, we must continue our strategy of business retention and expansion. We have many local companies and individuals who are undertaking innovative work that can have a global impact – we need to share those stories too.
All of us should take pride in the accolades Winnipeg has been receiving lately. We have worked hard to achieve this recognition, and to raise our city’s profile on the world stage. This confidence now needs to translate into winning more meetings and conventions, attracting more business, and persuading more talented individuals to build their careers here. As we look to 2019, we have many opportunities ahead of us that will continue to solidify Winnipeg’s place as a global hotspot.
Read our entire Q4 2018 report here.